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Thread: History of Japanese Swords

  1. #1
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    History of Japanese Swords



    Tokyo has a sword museum?
    Lately I have become intrested in Japanese Swords, I found this documentary helpful.

  2. #2
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    It's hard to be a ACLU hating, philosophically Libertarian, socially liberal, fiscally conservative, scientifically grounded, agnostic, porn admiring gun owner who believes in self determination.

    Chuck, we miss ya man.

    كافر

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    We have an art museum here in Nashville and a few years ago they had a Samurai exhibit on loan from somewhere in Europe. It was truly astonishing. The craftsmanship and devotion they put into their weaponry was otherworldly. I have a Japanese sword my Grandpa took of a kill in New Guinea in WWII. I’ve never taken it down to see if it was an heirloom blade or a military production. I need to one of these days.
    Last edited by DoubleW; 03-25-24 at 14:37.

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    Quote Originally Posted by DoubleW View Post
    We have an art museum here in Nashville and a few years ago they had a Samurai exhibit on loan from somewhere in Europe. It was truly astonishing. The craftsmanship and devotion they put into their weaponry was otherworldly. I have a Japanese sword my Grandpa took of a kill in New Guinea in WWII. I’ve never taken it down to see if it was an heirloom blade or a military production. I need to one of these days.
    I hope you give it the occasional wipe down from time to time.

    The vast majority of those carried by the Japanese military were military production blades, some done in factories and some mass produced by smiths. But every once in awhile a Lt. Sasaki would drop granpa's "pre meiji" blade into his regulation military furniture, or more commonly have military furniture produced to fit a family blade. So you really have to know what you are looking at.

    I've seen a lot of shin guntos in my time but a few times I realized I was looking at a very non standard blade profile (too long, too short, too curved) or the quality of steel just seemed very exceptional for a mass produced item.

    On the other end of the spectrum, lot's of "put togethers" exist (mix n match Army blades with Navy furniture) that were cobbled together especially for US occupation forces after the war. Researched collectors really could buy incredibly important blades for a song because people in Japan were still literally starving to death and the Walther Compton collection was an excellent example of what kind of collection an average person could build because of time and place.

    http://www.satcho.com/compton/compton.htm

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Ames_Compton

    After he died, his collection was auctioned by Christie's in 1992 and it was very much a BFD in the Japanese sword collector crowd.
    It's hard to be a ACLU hating, philosophically Libertarian, socially liberal, fiscally conservative, scientifically grounded, agnostic, porn admiring gun owner who believes in self determination.

    Chuck, we miss ya man.

    كافر

  5. #5
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    Nevermind
    The Second Amendment ACKNOWLEDGES our right to own and bear arms that are in common use that can be used for lawful purposes. The arms can be restricted ONLY if subject to historical analogue from the founding era or is dangerous (unsafe) AND unusual.

    It's that simple.

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